‘Caste remarks’ row, PIMS union writes to CM for justice

Jalandhar(DP Correspondent) – Blaming Punjab Institute of Health Sciences (PIMS) management of making castiest remarks, the two suspended PIMS Employees Union members have shot off a letter to Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh seeking justice. The two suspended employees namely Narinder Kumar, an Operation Theatre Technician and Dharminder Kumar, a Lab Technician said that the show cause notice was issued to 12 union members. However, they were suspended for being dalits, the duo claimed.A copy of the letter mentioning ‘caste based remarks’ has also been forwarded to Secretary Home Affairs and Justice and DGP Punjab. Both the employees were suspended by the PIMS management on September 28. Notably, the PIMS Employees Union was at loggerheads with the PIMS management over salary hike issue and exposing some major scams in the hospital and the medical college. The matter was currently pending in the local labour court.In the letter, the duo shared that on September 28, they were faced humiliation at the hands of HR Manager Harneet Kaur and PIMS Resident Director Kanwaljit Singh. “Caste based remarks were made against us. We were victimized and a police complaint was also lodged at Police Division number 7 but no action was taken till date”, they said.Both the union members maintained that they were being pressurized by the PIMS management to withdraw the complaint filed against them under Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act. “The PIMS management suspended us arbitrarily and without holding any inquiry against us. Our entry has also been banned in the PIMS hospital. We fear foul play by PIMS management”, they added.“An inquiry should be marked in this case to bring forth facts leading to our sudden suspension from PIMS”, said Narinder Kumar and Dharminder Kumar. Meanwhile, PIMS Resident Director Kanwaljit Singh was not available for comments. It is pertinent to mention here that recently PIMS was in the news after major scams like CT Scan scam, Liver test machine scan and charging extra for X-ray, blood tests, ultra sound tests. PIMS was fleecing people and charging more rates against those fixed by PGIMER Chandigarh under its norms.